Thursday, December 20, 2012

How Nuclear Energy in Japan Got Linked to National Security

In 1955 Japan passed its Atomic Energy Basic
Law, which allowed peaceful development of nuclear energy in a nation that had
suffered two atomic bomb attacks. Public acceptance of nuclear power in Japan
was remarkable given the time period.

After World War II, Japan’s citizens
were not enthralled with nuclear. Irradiation of Japanese fishermen in the
Bikini Atoll in 1954 solidified strong anti-nuclear sentiments. However, one
man played a vital role in shaping a strategic shift toward nuclear and the
U.S. He also shaped Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party, which is now back in
power.

That man was Matsutaro Shoriki. He
controlled the Yomiuri Shimbun and launched Japan’s first commercial television
station. He founded the Liberal Democratic Party, which ran Japan for 55 years,
at least, according to The Economist.

Shoriki helped get Japan’s Atomic Energy
Basic Law passed in 1955 and pushed to import US and UK reactors. Shoriki wanted nuclear
energy to join the nuclear club and to helped solve Japan’s energy needs.

Nuclear fulfilled two security needs, the need for energy and the need for the
capability of a nuclear deterrent. But nuclear fulfilled this latter need covertly because Article 9 of Japan's Constitution bars the nation from a sovereign act of war.

Article 9 of Japan’s Constitution
prohibits a national act of war. The article reads:

ARTICLE 9. Aspiring sincerely to an
international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever
renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force
as means of settling international disputes.(2) To accomplish the aim of
the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war
potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency
of the state will not be recognized.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_9_of_the_Japanese_Constitution

Nuclear
power would allow Japan to meet the letter of the Constitution while having on
hand the materials necessary for creating a nuclear deterrent for the purpose
of Japan’s collective self-defense.

NOW TO PRESENT TIMES:

In 2008 Japan passed the Aerospace Basic
Law of 2008, which allowed for technological developments in aeronautics for the purposes of national security.

In June 2012, a national security clause was entered as an amendment to Japan’s
Atomic Energy Basic Law, as explained in an editorial in The Asahi Shimbun:

A revision to
the Atomic Energy Basic Law adding an appendix stating that nuclear power
should “contribute to national security” has passed the Diet. Those words,
which could provoke suspicions that Japan is planning to develop nuclear
weapons, should be deleted in the next Diet session. Nuclear law's 'national
security' clause must be dropped. The Asahi Shimbun (2012, June 22) http://ajw.asahi.com/article/views/editorial/AJ201206220037

Now, Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party is
urging support for revoking Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution. The Mainichi newspaper conducted a
survey of new legislators regarding their support for eliminating the
“war-renouncing” Article 9 of Japan’s Constitution:

About 72 percent of 473 newly elected House of
Representative lawmakers support the idea of revising war-renouncing Article 9
of the Constitution and 78 percent of the legislators say the government should
change its constitutional interpretation that currently forbids Japan from
exercising the right of collective self-defense, according to a survey
conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun… The approval of at least two-thirds of
members of both houses of the Diet is needed to bring constitutional amendments
before the Diet. Therefore the figure found in the survey meets the requirements
of the lower chamber to initiate amendments to the Constitution. (72% of newly
elected lawmakers want to revise war-renouncing Article 9 of Constitution. The Mainich
2012, December 18 http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20121218p2a00m0na011000c.html

The
Mainichi
concluded that 90 percent of the LDP legislators favor revising Article 9 of
the Constitution.

So, Japan’s nuclear energy complex is
also its “defense” industry.

That is why the "nuclear village" in Japan is "smiling again" see here

Unfortunately, Japanese scientistshave confirmed
that Japan's prime defense industry plant, the reprocessing plant at Rokkasho, is
sitting on an active fault.

About Me

I am a Professor at a large public university. I study political economy and biopolitics (the politics of life). My interests are diverse but are broadly concerned with economic, social and environmental justice. I have published 5 books: Crisis Communication, Liberal Democracy and Ecological Sustainability: The Threat of Financial and Energy Complexes in the Twenty-First Century (2016); Fukusima and the Privatization of Risk (2013); Constructing Autism (2005); Governmentality, Biopower and Everyday Life (2008/2011); Governing Childhood (2010).
I also participated in an edited collection on Fukushima: Fukushima: Dispossession or Denuclearization (2014).